RMS 10 most misunderstood road rules wrote:1. Drivers approaching a roundabout must use their indicators when turning or making a U-turn.2. If a driver is turning left or right at an intersection they must give way to pedestrians.3. A mobile phone can only be used while driving if it's secured in a mounting or operated by Bluetooth technology or voice activation.4. When a driver is travelling on a road without lane markings and the number of lanes is reduced, they must merge by giving way to any vehicle that is ahead of them.5. On roads with a speed limit of more than 80km/h, motorists must not drive in the right-hand lane unless overtaking, turning right or making a U-turn.6. High beam is not permitted if travelling less than 200 metres behind a car going in the same direction or less than 200 metres from an oncoming vehicle.7. When making a U-turn a driver must have a clear view of any approaching traffic and give way to all vehicles and pedestrians.8. Drivers must stay three seconds behind vehicles in front of them.9. A school zone is the area around a school with a speed limit of 40km/h normally from 8am to 9.30am and between 2.30pm and 4pm on school days.10. A driver approaching traffic lights showing a yellow traffic light must stop if they can do so safely

While I agree with 1 and 2, most of the others seem to me to be ignored rather than misunderstood.

A couple that would make my list.

* You cannot cross an unbroken centre line to overtake a cyclist* there is no rule requiring a cyclist to "get out of your way" of "get off the road"* Green paint / bicycle symbol does not a bicycle lane make

Mmmm, seems my list is a bit bike centric, wonder how that could have happened

126 Keeping a safe distance behind vehiclesA driver must drive a sufficient distance behind a vehicle travelling in front of the driver so the driver can, if necessary, stop safely to avoid a collision with the vehicle.

When I was taught to drive all those years ago, I was told 2 seconds. It seems they are now encouraging you to think of 3 seconds as a sufficient distance

1,2,5 & 7 are the ones that I find to be most misunderstood. #5 in particular really gets up my nose, almost a daily occurence for me to have to interact with dimwits that dont grasp this one (even with signage) and/or think they are above such things. I particularly like the ones that glare at you as you finally get past them, no, I'm not speeding, and even if I was doing up to 9km\h over the posted limit, the penaly units and demerit points for failing to keep left are exactly the same so dont try and look down on me. IMO failing to keep left is more of a disturbance to traffic flow and more relevant to increased risk of collision than exceeding the speed limit by less than the allowable error tolerance of your speedometer (which last I knew was 10% under ADR, it may be different now).

I actually had a friend get done for failing to keep left (unmarked cops came up behind him, he cracked it and decided to unneccesarily stay in the RH lane as well as slow down to be a pain not knowing it was a cop, so they pinged him). He was fuming, spewing absolute vitriol to anyone who would listen. I laughed at him and told him to suck it up and he deserved every bit of what he got. He didnt like that much.

edit: based on here, it appears failing to keep left attracts more points and penalty units than exceeding the speed limit by <10 km/h rather than the same as I mentioned above (at least in my neck of the woods anyway).

master6 wrote: Moderators are like Club Handicappers; I often think they are wrong, but I dont want the job.

Failing to keep left also applies on roads with speed limits of 80kmh and below - those which have no lane lines marked. All vehicles (not just cyclists) are required to drive as far to the left as is practicable. I was just discussing this with my son while supervising him driving on Ls. So many drivers simply ignore this and hug the centre line

Riding bikes in traffic - what seems dangerous is usually safe; what seems safe is often more dangerous.

rkelsen wrote:What about not entering an intersection which isn't clear?

That one gets broken all the time.

Note sure whether you are referring to failing to give way or to vehicles entering the intersection when they are unable to exit it. Either way, both are annoying.

I reckon RK's talking about fouling intersections that you can't fully clear. If I'm in the smokebox at school times I'll go acouple of kms out of my way to avoid THESE roundabouts The PATS school crossing between them means they are always clogged with clowns who must think that because they are jammed tight and can't move nobody else should have the choice.

The sooner that some enterprising person develops a No5 camera the better. Apart from the annoyance factor and interference with traffic flow there's the safety aspect of them diving-often without any more indication that a sudden brake light-across x lanes of traffic to exit the road left

...whatever the road rules, self-preservation is the absolute priority for a cyclist when mixing it with motorised traffic.London Boy 29/12/2011

il padrone wrote:Failing to keep left also applies on roads with speed limits of 80kmh and below - those which have no lane lines marked. All vehicles (not just cyclists) are required to drive as far to the left as is practicable... So many drivers simply ignore this and hug the centre line

"Practicable" is a pretty broad word, making policing very difficult except in extreme cases.

Re failing to keep left - it seems to me that #5 becomes impractical after a certain volume of traffic is on the road, i.e at peak hours. You can't fit two lanes worth of cars into one lane, even if it would be kind of fun to be the only car in the right lane, overtaking everyone.

il padrone wrote:Practicable to me means where it is safe in the conditions (potholes, glass and debris is of minimal impact for car drivers) and workable within the scope of the driver's intentions.

Exactly. The leftmost metre of many roads can often be a bike-eating minefield of glass, gratings, drains, rocks, debris, you name it. It can be simply not safe to ride there - even before the whole part about tacitly encouraging drivers behind you to try and squeeeeeze past.

I have a theory about "10. A driver approaching traffic lights showing a yellow traffic light must stop if they can do so safely". I don't know if it is just me becoming old & crotchety but I am sure that this was less of a problem before red light cameras.

Based solely on my anecdotal observations, when red light cameras first came in, there was an initial change in behaviour, with people being very careful not to run the red. Then slowly people learned that a red light camera only caught you if you crossed the first line after the light went red. Then instead of stopping on yellow lights, people would speed up to make sure they were into the intersection before the red.

My observations could be subject to all sorts of perception biases & memory lapses, but this is my theory & I own it

IIRC in the ACT they had road markings before the lights & if the lights went yellow before you got to the lights you either had enough time to stop or you were speeding.

I think this is the idea behind the new multi-purpose cameras that detect both red light runners & speeding.

Howzat wrote:Re failing to keep left - it seems to me that #5 becomes impractical after a certain volume of traffic is on the road, i.e at peak hours. You can't fit two lanes worth of cars into one lane, even if it would be kind of fun to be the only car in the right lane, overtaking everyone.

Correct, and it is accounted for in the rules (follow the link in the op for full explanation)

master6 wrote: Moderators are like Club Handicappers; I often think they are wrong, but I dont want the job.

find_bruce wrote: Then slowly people learned that a red light camera only caught you if you crossed the first line after the light went red. Then instead of stopping on yellow lights, people would speed up to make sure they were into the intersection before the red.

Illegal to do this. There are some combined red light/speed cameras now in use that will pick this speed change up and ping you for it. Whether you are speeding or not. Just the acceleration is illegal. When the lights go amber you should be either slowing under brakes or, if too close to stop, proceeding through at a stable speed.

find_bruce wrote:I think this is the idea behind the new multi-purpose cameras that detect both red light runners & speeding.

You are correct

Riding bikes in traffic - what seems dangerous is usually safe; what seems safe is often more dangerous.

My pet peeve is drivers not understanding that one right-turning car may enter the intersection (with wheels facing forward) while waiting for a safe gap within which to turn. If the lights then turn red while the car is still in the intersection, the car may legally complete the turn. Minimally one car can always make a RH turn every light cycle.

Cars that wait behind the line, and if a gap does not open may not legally turn on the orange or red.So they wait through the next light cycle, and the next,and the next...

il padrone wrote:Illegal to do this. There are some combined red light/speed cameras now in use that will pick this speed change up and ping you for it. Whether you are speeding or not. Just the acceleration is illegal. When the lights go amber you should be either slowing under brakes or, if too close to stop, proceeding through at a stable speed.

il padrone wrote:Illegal to do this. There are some combined red light/speed cameras now in use that will pick this speed change up and ping you for it. Whether you are speeding or not. Just the acceleration is illegal. When the lights go amber you should be either slowing under brakes or, if too close to stop, proceeding through at a stable speed.

Road Safety Road Rules 2009 wrote:57 Stopping for a yellow traffic light or arrow:(1) A driver approaching or at traffic lights showing ayellow traffic light must stop— (a) if there is a stop line at or near the traffic lights and the driver can stop safely before reaching the stop line—as near as practicable to, but before reaching, the stop line; or (b) if there is no stop line at or near the traffic lights and the driver can stop safely before reaching the traffic lights—as near as practicable to, but before reaching, the nearest or only traffic lights; or (c) if the traffic lights are at an intersection and the driver cannot stop safely in accordance with paragraph (a) or (b), but can stop safely before entering the intersection

- before entering the intersection—and must not proceed past the stop line or nearestor only traffic lights, or into the intersection(as the case may be), until the traffic lights show agreen or flashing yellow traffic light or no trafficlight.Penalty: 5 penalty units.NoteEnter, intersection, stop line and yellow traffic light aredefined in the dictionary.

IP - im yet to see a detection device that pings you for speeding up, rather than speeding and AFAIK they dont exist. Happy to be proven wrong though.

master6 wrote: Moderators are like Club Handicappers; I often think they are wrong, but I dont want the job.

(3) If the traffic lights or traffic arrows (as the case may be) are at an intersection and the driver is not able to stop safely under subrule (1) or (2) (as the case may be) and enters the intersection, the driver must leave the intersection as soon as the driver can do so safely.

I'd guess it may be under the section about doing "so safely". Accelerating to race the red is not going to be safe for other road users nearby. I'm no expert, just going by advice from instructors at an advanced driving school and what I seem to recall police have stated.

Riding bikes in traffic - what seems dangerous is usually safe; what seems safe is often more dangerous.

All drivers have a duty to take care to avoid crashingThe first responsibility of a road user is not to have a crash.A driver can be held accountable for a crash despite the fact that a road rule was not broken.

Just a shame its buried down on page 16 and it refers to crashing rather than causing harm

The world would be a better place if all road users had this first and foremost in their minds